Numerous designs exist for electrical plug connectors including those of hermaphroditic designs. See for example U.S. Pat. No. 4,701,133 issued Oct. 20, 1987 or U.S. Pat. No. 3,594,695 issued Jul. 20, 1971. Various means have been employed also to protect such connectors from the environment. One such solution has been to utilize a curable potting compound which can cure in place around a connection. Another solution has been to use heat shrinkable materials wrapped around the connection. See for example U.S. Pat. No. 4,923,413 issued May 8, 1990.
A need has continued to exist for a plug configuration which can connect together four or more wires in a hermaphroditic manner such that any two wires in an installation can be connected together at either end and which are adequately sealed from the environment so that failures resulting in costly shut-downs of plant or equipment are minimized. It is the principal object of the present invention to meet the need for such a plug.
Briefly summarized, the present invention provides an electrical connector assembly formed of opposed mating connectors. Each of the connectors is substantially identical so that it can be hermaphroditically mated to any of the other plug members. The plug members of the present invention have two or more pairs of alternating male and female contact members. In accordance with the invention, each female contact member is carried by and disposed at the outer end of a linear elongated insulating member projecting from the end of the plug. The insulating members in cross-section are each in the configuration of a sector of a circle having a truncated central edge. The male contact members are disposed between the elongated insulating members. The elongated insulating members are so configured that when two of the connectors are mated together the elongated members will form a cylindrical shape. The connectors will mate together only in one orientation due to the fact that at least one of the elongated insulating members forms an arcuate part of the circumference of a circle that has a different length than at least one of the other elongated members.
The connectors of the present invention are protected from the environment in three separate ways. Firstly, such protection is provided by placement of the female contact members within the elongated insulating members. Secondly, the plugs are provided with a snap-in-place sleeve element that engages grooves on the outer surface of the plug members. Finally, the outer surface of the sleeve is sealed within a shroud of heat shrinkable material, in the preferred embodiment. Raised ridges are provided around the bases of the plugs to provide surfaces for the shroud to engage mechanically after shrinking.